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Orioles Trade Bryan Baker To Rays

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The Rays are getting some bullpen help, acquiring right-handed reliever Bryan Baker from the Orioles in exchange for a 2025 Competitive Balance (Round A) draft selection, No. 37 overall. Both teams have announced the swap.

Baker adds a power arm with potent bat-missing ability to the Rays’ bullpen. The 30-year-old righty has pitched 38 1/3 innings for the Orioles this season and turned in a 3.52 ERA with an even more encouraging 32.5% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. Baker sits 96.7 mph with his four-seamer, per Statcast, and he’s sporting a strong 13.1% swinging-strike rate on the season thanks in no small part to a changeup that’s graded out brilliantly thus far. Opponents are hitting just .154 and slugging a putrid .205 against Baker’s changeup.

This year’s numbers are skewed a bit by Baker’s outing just two days ago, when the Mets jumped him for four runs. He didn’t record an out and was tagged for a pair of home runs. Baker’s ERA ballooned from 2.58 all the way to its current 3.52 mark.

Baker has had some home run troubles (1.88 HR/9), but he’s also seen a fluky 20% of the fly-balls he’s allowed turn into home runs — well north of the 11.4% league average and nearly triple his career mark entering the season. Metrics like xFIP (2.78) and SIERA (2.37) — which normalize HR/FB to account for potential small-sample spikes like this — feel Baker has been vastly better than his earned run average would indicate. The Rays, presumably, are confident that the home run troubles will prove anomalous while Baker maintains his ability to miss bats and limit free passes.

In parts of four seasons with the O’s, Baker has a 3.73 ERA over the course of 176 1/3 innings. He currently boasts career-best marks in strikeout rate, walk rate, fastball velocity, swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rate. On top of that, he’s not yet into his arbitration years, having only amassed two-plus years of service time prior to 2025. He’ll cross the three-year mark this season and be eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason. Tampa Bay can control him through the 2028 campaign.

Adding another reliever is typically a goal for all contending clubs, but it’s quite prudent for a Rays club that currently has Manuel Rodriguez (2.08 ERA in 30 1/3 innings) and Hunter Bigge (2.51 ERA dating back to last summer’s MLB debut) on the injured list at present. As noted just yesterday in our Trade Deadline Outlook on the Rays, Tampa Bay tends to prioritize under-the-radar pickups of just this sort of controllable reliever, as opposed to making plays for more obvious trade candidates with dwindling club control.

Baker has regularly worked in high-leverage spots for Baltimore this season. He’s tallied a pair of saves and 10 holds on the year already. He’ll now join a late-inning mix for the Rays, pairing with Garrett Cleavinger, Edwin Uceta and (once healthy) Rodriguez as a setup option for excellent closer Pete Fairbanks.

For the Orioles, they’ll add more firepower to what’s already a large draft pool. Draft picks awarded in Major League Baseball’s Competitive Balance lottery are the only picks eligible to be traded and may only be traded one time, so Baltimore will hang onto this pick and carry it into Sunday’s draft.

The Orioles, who gained compensatory picks at the end of the first round when Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander signed elsewhere after declining qualifying offers, now have four of the first 37 selections in this year’s draft. In addition to that pair of comp picks, Baltimore also has a pick in Competitive Balance Round B (between the second and third rounds of the draft). That gives them a staggering seven picks in the first 93 selections of this year’s draft and a massive bonus pool worth more than $19MM — the largest of any team in MLB.

The O’s are selling Baker at close to peak value, but they won’t get any short-term help that could impact the team this year or next. Baltimore is 10 games under .500 and seven back of a Wild Card spot in the American League, so it’s not necessarily a shock to see them begin to sell off some big league pieces for future value. The question is whether this will end up as a one-off for now, with the O’s staying the course until closer to the deadline in hopes of a late surge back into the Wild Card chase, or whether this is the beginning of a larger sale.

Presumably, if the O’s ultimately end up trading off a larger slate of veteran players, they’ll begin to prioritize young talent that’s closer to MLB readiness. The O’s have rental players like Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, Seranthony Dominguez, Tomoyuki Sugano, Gregory Soto, Charlie Morton and Zach Eflin, plus older veterans with reasonably priced 2026 club options like Andrew Kittredge and Ramon Laureano. General manager Mike Elias could field offers on that group while still keeping the core of Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday and Grayson Rodriguez together in hopes of retooling for another run at contention in 2026. In that scenario, adding some young big leaguers or on-the-cusp prospects in Triple-A would be a sensible goal.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Baker was being traded to the Rays. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the return.

Mets Designate Travis Jankowski For Assignment

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The Mets announced Thursday that they’ve designated outfielder Travis Jankowski for assignment. His spot on the active roster goes to Luisangel Acuña, who has been recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. The team added that right-handed reliever Austin Warren is up from Syracuse to serve as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader against the Orioles.

Jankowski has played with the Mets, Rays and White Sox this year, although his role in Queens was quite limited. New York signed him to a minor league deal on June 10 and selected him to the big league roster on June 23, but he’s only appeared in five games and taken one plate appearance since that time. He’s up to 50 plate appearances on the season between those three teams and has produced a .244/.286/.289 batting line in that time.

The veteran Jankowski has played for eight teams and now picked up more than eight years of major league service time since making his debut with the 2015 Padres. He’s never been an outfield regular, topping out at 387 plate appearances in a single season, but has carved out a lengthy career as a reserve outfielder and pinch-running/defensive specialist. Jankowski is 34 but still sits in the 95th percentile of big leaguers in terms of average sprint speed, per Statcast. He can play all three outfield positions and carries a career .236/.318/.305 batting line in 1759 plate appearances.

The Mets can trade Jankowski or place him on waivers at any point in the next five days. Waivers would require an additional 48 hours to process. If he goes unclaimed, Jankowski will have the right to reject an outright assignment to the minor leagues in favor of free agency, if he wishes to do so.

Acuña returns to the Mets after being optioned when Jankowski was originally selected, on June 23. He played in a dozen Triple-A contests and tallied 53 plate appearances, batting .289/.346/.378 in that short time. Acuña played both middle infield spots but also started four games in center field — including his past two games — during this brief Syracuse reset. He’s only played center in the majors once this year, but his recent work on the grass in Triple-A could make him a more frequent outfield contributor in his return to the big league roster.

Trade Deadline Outlook: Tampa Bay Rays

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The Rays are up next in MLBTR's team-by-team look at the upcoming trade deadline. Tampa Bay has weathered an uneven start to the season and emerged in the thick of the division race. The Rays are currently six games over .500, good for third place in the American League East but sole possession of the American League's second Wild Card spot. They're five games back of the division-leading Blue Jays.

While most clubs tend to pick a buy or sell lane, the Rays are always open to a bit of a mixed-bag approach. They're constantly working to walk the line between rebuilding and contending and are never afraid to trade from the major league roster. President of baseball operations Erik Neander and his staff will be looking to add to the roster ahead of what looks like a very likely playoff run, but the Rays will probably still get some calls on some of their pricey veterans with dwindling levels of club control.

Record: 49-43 (57.3% playoff odds, per FanGraphs)

Other series entries: Rockies, Giants, Phillies, Pirates, Astros, Marlins, Athletics, Orioles, White Sox, Nationals, Cubs

Buy Mode

Potential needs: Outfield, catcher, right-handed bat, another reliever

It's always tough to identify exact needs on a well-rounded club. That's the Rays in 2025, but the outfield has been a revolving door of less-than-ideal options. Kameron Misner has seen the most plate appearances of any Ray in the outfield this year, and he's batted .214/.274/.347 in 216 plate appearances there. He faded badly after a hot start and was optioned to Triple-A Durham in late June.

Each of Jake Mangum, Josh Lowe, Christopher Morel and Chandler Simpson has received between 166 and 206 plate appearances in the outfield. Mangum and Morel have hit well but done so with the help of plenty of good fortune on batted balls. Simpson is getting his second look in the majors and using his speed and elite contact skills to produce solid offense. He could lead the majors in stolen bases but has 20-grade power (on the 20-80 scale), a well below-average walk rate and shaky defense in center. Lowe was terrific in 2023, pedestrian in 2024, and is somewhere in between in 2025.

The Rays have enough outfield options that they could mix-and-match for the rest of the season, playing the hot hand and rotating outfielders based on matchups they deem favorable. It's a tactic we've seen before from manager Kevin Cash (at various places on the roster), but some more stability and more power, in particular, might be welcome. Rays outfielders have been about league-average offensively on the whole, but they're benefiting from a .339 average on balls in play and rank 27th in the majors with a .121 isolated power mark (slugging percentage minus batting average). Only the Guardians and Royals have received fewer home runs from their outfield than the Rays' total of 21.

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Pirates Release Tanner Rainey

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The Pirates have released right-hander Tanner Rainey, per the MiLB.com transaction log. He’d been in Pittsburgh’s bullpen earlier this season but had more recently been pitching in Triple-A Indianapolis after being designated for assignment, passed through waivers and re-signed on a new minor league contract.

Rainey’s time with the Pirates’ big league club earlier this year didn’t go well. He pitched in 11 games but lasted only 7 2/3 innings while serving up nine runs on seven hits, six walks and a hit batter. He fanned nine of 37 opponents (24.3%). His fastball, which averaged 97 mph as recently as 2022 with the Nationals, sat at 95 mph.

Since being passed through waivers and heading back to Indy, however, Rainey has been outstanding. He’s pitched in eight games and tallied eight shutout frames with nine strikeouts against five walks. It seems odd that he’d be released on the heels of a run like that, but minor league deals for veterans of this nature often contain opt-out dates, upward mobility clauses and language granting the player the right to pursue foreign opportunities. Any of those could be at play with regard to Rainey, who now has a 3.18 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate and 12.2% walk rate in 17 innings at the Triple-A level this season.

The 32-year-old Rainey was a hard-throwing, at times dominant late-inning arm with the Nationals from 2019-23. Command issues have plagued him throughout his big league tenure, but prior to undergoing Tommy John surgery late in the 2022 season, he sat 97 mph with his heater and fanned nearly one-third of his opponents. Since returning from injury, however, has a 5.43 ERA in 59 2/3 big league innings.

Marlins Claim Tyler Zuber, Designate Nick Nastrini

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1:47pm: The Marlins announced that Zuber has indeed been claimed off waivers from the Mets. Miami designated right-hander Nick Nastrini for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

The 25-year-old Nastrini was claimed off waivers from the White Sox eight days ago. He’s started one game in Jacksonville since that claim, pitching two innings and allowing a a pair of runs in a concerning manner; Nastrini didn’t allow a hit in that appearance but issued four walks and plunked three batters.

Once a well-regarded prospect in the Dodgers and White Sox systems, Nastrini pitched poorly in 35 2/3 big league innings during last year’s debut with the White Sox. He also struggled to a 5.29 ERA in 85 Triple-A frames and has been knocked around for a 7.58 earned run average in 46 1/3 Triple-A innings so far in 2025. Nastrini has long drawn praise for a pair of quality breaking balls that give him strong bat-missing abilities, but command has been persistently cited as a weakness in scouting reports — and that’s played out so far both in Triple-A and in the majors.

The Marlins will have five days to place Nastrini back on waivers or trade him to another club. He’s in his second of three minor league option years.

1:35pm: The Marlins claimed right-handed reliever Tyler Zuber off waivers from the Mets, reports Kevin Barral of Fish On First. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville. The Mets designated Zuber for assignment over the weekend. Miami has yet to formally announce the waiver claim, which will require the team to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Zuber, 30, pitched in only one game with the Mets, allowing a pair of runs in two innings. He’s appeared in parts of four big league seasons between New York, Kansas City and Tampa Bay, working to a combined 5.27 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate and a 15.9% walk rate.

Zuber has also pitched in parts of four Triple-A seasons but carries an ERA north of 5.00 there as well. Command issues have dogged him, particularly in the upper minors, but he’s regularly shown an ability to miss bats — both in terms of his raw strikeout rate and his typically above-average swinging-strike rates. He’s in his final minor league option year, so the Marlins can shuttle him back and forth between Jacksonville and Miami without needing to expose Zuber to waivers.

While he’s typically been a three-pitch reliever in the past, Zuber has added a changeup to his repertoire in Triple-A this year and tossed the pitch at an 11% clip. He’s still leaning primarily on a four-seamer that’s averaging 93.8 mph, a slider in the 82-83 mph range and a cutter in the low 90s, but the addition of a changeup gives him another offering with which to experiment while he tries to work his way back to the big league level with his new club.

Twins Designate Joey Wentz For Assignment

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The Twins announced Wednesday that they’ve designated left-hander Joey Wentz for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to fellow left-handed reliever Anthony Misiewicz, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A St. Paul.

Wentz, 27, was claimed off waivers out of the Pirates organization a bit less than a month ago. He’s been used in long relief and mop-up work with Minnesota and been hit hard. The former Braves top prospect has appeared in six games as a Twin and been scored upon in five of them, working to a disastrous 15.75 ERA (14 runs in eight innings). He’d previously pitched to a 4.15 ERA in 26 frames with Pittsburgh and now has an overall 6.88 ERA on the year.

Originally drafted 40th overall by Atlanta in 2016, Wentz was a well-regarded prospect who went from the Braves to the Tigers in the 2019 Shane Greene swap. He made his big league debut with Detroit but has never found much success in the majors as either a starter or reliever. He’s pitched in parts of four seasons and tallied 239 2/3 innings with a 5.75 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate. Home runs (1.50 HR/9) and an inability to strand runners (66.5%) have been the primary undoing for Wentz.

Wentz is out of minor league options, so the Twins (like the Pirates before them) couldn’t simply send him to the minors without first designating him for assignment. Minnesota will either place Wentz on waivers or trade him within the next five days. Waivers would be another 48-hour process, meaning his DFA will be resolved in a maximum of seven days. Wentz has never cleared waivers before and has under three years of service time, so in the likely event that he’s unclaimed this time around, the Twins can assign him outright to St. Paul and hope to get him on track in Triple-A.

In place of Wentz, the Twins will turn to another lefty with a fair bit of MLB experience — but more success. The 30-year-old Misiewicz signed a minor league deal over the winter and has pitched decently with the Saints, logging a 4.02 ERA, a 24.2% strikeout rate and an 8.3% walk rate for the Twins’ top minor league club. He’s picked up eight saves and a hold along the way. Misiewicz was cruising along with a sub-3.00 ERA before a five-run hiccup against the Reds’ top affiliate in late June. He’s bounced back with a pair of perfect innings.

The Twins will be Misiewicz’s sixth big league team. He’s previously suited up for the Mariners, Royals, D-backs, Tigers and Yankees. From 2020-24, Misiewicz has pitched 115 2/3 major league innings and delivered a 4.67 ERA, a 22.8% strikeout rate and a 7.6% walk rate. He’s been using a three-pitch mix in St. Paul, brandishing a four-seamer that sits 91.6 mph, a cutter that sits 87.6 mph and a slow curve that’s averaged 78.5 mph.

Like Wentz, Misiewicz is out of minor league options, so he’ll either need to stick in the ’pen or else be designated for assignment himself. Misiewicz has three years of big league service, which technically makes him controllable for three more years beyond the current season, but he has a long ways to go before that future control is any real consideration.

Yankees Designate Geoff Hartlieb For Assignment

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The Yankees announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-handed reliever Geoff Hartlieb for assignment. His spot on the 40-man and 26-man rosters will go to pitching prospect Cam Schlittler, whose previously reported promotion is now official. Schlittler’s contract has been selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and he’ll make his major league debut when he starts today’s game against the Mariners.

Hartlieb, 31, has appeared in two games for the Yankees this season. He’s allowed three runs in both, resulting in a grisly 40.50 ERA through 1 1/3 innings. He’s been very good in a larger sample of 35 Triple-A frames, working to a 3.34 ERA with a sharp 26.2% strikeout rate and strong 6.9% walk rate. Hartlieb has a solid overall track record in Triple-A, but he’s struggled badly in parts of six big league seasons between the Pirates, Mets, Marlins, Rockies and now Yankees. In 80 2/3 MLB frames, he carries a 7.92 earned run average.

The Yankees have five days to trade Hartlieb or place him on waivers (a 48-hour process) in order to resolve his DFA within the maximum allotted window of one week. This is his second DFA of the season in the Bronx — the Yankees also designated him following his first appearance — and he accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers the last time. There’s a good chance this time will play out similarly, though Hartlieb will have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Royals Sign Dallas Keuchel To Minor League Deal

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The Royals announced Wednesday that they’ve signed left-hander Dallas Keuchel to a minor league contract. ESPN’s Jeff Passan notes that Keuchel held a workout for clubs last week, which the Royals attended. He’ll earn a prorated $2MM salary for any time spent on the major league roster.

Keuchel, 37, has pitched in parts of 13 big league seasons and was one of the top lefties in the sport at his peak. The 2015 American League Cy Young Award winner with the Astros, Keuchel starred for Houston from 2014-18 when he pitched a combined 950 1/3 innings with a 3.28 ERA, a 20.2% strikeout rate, a 6.5% walk rate and a mammoth 60% ground-ball rate. He had a solid partial season with Atlanta in 2019 and signed a three-year pact with the ChiSox spanning the 2020-22 seasons. The first year of that contract played out wonderfully, but Keuchel was ineffective in 2021 and pitched poorly enough in 2022 to be released before the contract had concluded.

Since his career began trending downward with the South Siders, Keuchel has slipped into journeyman status. He’s pitched for the White Sox, Rangers, D-backs, Twins and Brewers in the past three years and also had a stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. Keuchel started four games for the 2024 Brewers and yielded a 5.40 ERA with 11 strikeouts against eight walks in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He also made 13 solid starts for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma last year.

Kansas City entered the 2025 season with a strong quintet in the rotation. Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kris Bubic, Michael Wacha and Michael Lorenzen is a deeper one through five than most clubs can boast, and there were quality depth options like righty Alec Marsh and prospect Noah Cameron. Ragans is now sidelined with a strained rotator cuff that’ll keep him out until at least Aug. 7. Marsh has been on the IL all season due to a shoulder impingement that is taking longer than anticipated to mend.

That’s left the Royals with scant depth beyond the currently healthy group of Lugo, Bubic, Cameron, Wacha and Lorenzen. Cameron has been a godsend on the whole but has looked far more mortal in his past six starts (4.26 ERA in 31 2/3 innings) than he did in his historic first five starts (0.85 ERA in that same sample size of 31 2/3 innings). His performance has been direly needed, especially with several of the organization’s other top young arms either struggling (e.g. Luinder Avila, Ben Kudrna, Steven Zobac) or falling to injury (e.g. Tyson Guerrero).

Keuchel is the second veteran lefty whom the Royals have signed to a minor league pact to serve as depth. He’ll join Rich Hill on an Omaha pitching staff that also includes several journeymen with big league experience: Thomas Hatch, Justin Dunn and John Gant among them.

Rhys Hoskins Expects To Be Out Roughly Six Weeks

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Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins is targeting a six-week return from his thumb injury, the slugger himself told the team’s beat this afternoon (video link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Hoskins has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left thumb and a bone bruise as well.

Hoskins will be in a splint for the next couple weeks before beginning strength exercises and eventually resuming baseball activity. He noted that some doctors have told him four weeks and others have suggested an absence of eight weeks. He’s targeting the midpoint, which would place him back in the lineup mid-August.

Hoskins originally sustained the injury three days ago when applying a lunging tag to Marlins infielder Eric Wagaman on a play at first base (video link). He immediately took off his mitt and was checked out by the training staff. Jake Bauers replaced him at first base the next inning. Andrew Vaughn has since been recalled from Triple-A Nashville to take Hoskins’ spot on the roster. The former White Sox slugger ripped a three-run homer in his first at-bat after replacing Hoskins on the roster.

The 32-year-old Hoskins has enjoyed a more productive second season in Milwaukee than he did in his first season last year. The longtime Phillies slugger is batting .242/.340/.428 (115 wRC+) with a dozen homers and doubles apiece. He’s upped his walk rate from 10.3% to 11.9% and cut his strikeout rate from 28.8% to 26.7%. Hoskins turned in big performances in April and May before slumping for much of June. He looked to be getting back on track at the plate, with a .237/.354/.526 performance in 12 games leading up to his injury.

It’s at least plausible that Milwaukee will consider bringing in another bat to help patch things over, although they’ll surely take a look at the Bauers/Vaughn tandem before making any larger changes. Vaughn hit well in 16 games with the Brewers’ Triple-A Nashville club before being summoned to take Hoskins’ spot on the roster, and Bauers has at least drawn walks at a gaudy 15.3% clip against right-handed pitching this season, resulting in a .328 OBP in those matchups. The righty-swinging Vaughn and lefty-hitting Bauers could patch things over in a short-term platoon arrangement — particularly if Hoskins can return on the quicker side of the timetables presented to him.

That said, the Milwaukee bench isn’t exactly a strong point, currently including Vaughn, backup catcher Eric Haase, third baseman Andruw Monasterio (career .241/.321/.327) and 26-year-old rookie catcher/infielder Anthony Seigler (a minor league free agent signee who is 1-for-8 to begin his MLB career). Prospect Tyler Black might’ve been an option, but he’s hitting .129/.260/.177 in 73 Triple-A plate appearances since returning from a broken hamate. Adding a multi-position bat that can handle first base (among other spots on the diamond) and also offer some more offense from Pat Murphy’s bench arguably makes good sense regardless of Hoskins’ timetable.

Yankees Moving Jazz Chisholm Jr. Back To Second Base

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3:20pm: Boone tells the Yankees beat that there’s no thought of playing LeMahieu at third base (link via Chris Kirschner of The Athletic). Playing third base is physically challenging for LeMahieu at this stage of his career, and the Yankees are viewing him primarily as a bench bat moving forward. Asked how the veteran infielder took the news, Boone candidly replied, “Not great, necessarily, but that’s kind of the situation we’re in right now.”

LeMahieu is being paid $15MM this season and is owed another $15MM in 2026.

11:25am: Since returning to the Yankees following a monthlong stay on the injured list due to an oblique strain, Jazz Chisholm Jr. has appeared in 29 games and played third base in every single one of them. The versatile infielder/outfielder recently voiced a team-first approach saying he’ll play anywhere but noted that his preference is second base. That shift is now in the works, as manager Aaron Boone tells Talkin’ Yanks that Chisholm will move back to second base beginning tonight. Oswald Peraza will play third base this evening, Boone adds.

It’s a notable change both in that it sets the Yankees up for a better defensive alignment while also potentially tipping their hand with regard to the looming trade deadline. Chisholm has been a capable but unspectacular defender at the hot corner. He grades out more effectively at second base. Peraza hasn’t hit at all this season but draws strong defensive marks for his glovework at the hot corner. Meanwhile, veteran infielder DJ LeMahieu has provided slightly below-average offense and diminished defense at second base (particularly relative to his brilliant peak). He hasn’t logged  an inning at third base this year.

The Yankees are widely expected to search for infield help (among other things) ahead of the July 31 trade deadline. While it’s always possible they bring in another second baseman and move Chisholm back to third base, the early shift back to his more natural position seems to signal a preference for Chisholm to remain there. Boone acknowledged that his preference is to keep Chisholm at second base for now and avoid a situation where he’s bouncing back and forth between the two positions. A third base upgrade stands as a more natural target as the Yankees peruse the trade market.

The Yanks have already been connected to Colorado’s Ryan McMahon and Pittsburgh’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa (a former Yankee), among other possible third base targets. Presumably, they would be prominent suitors for Arizona’s Eugenio Suárez if he’s made available, but the D-backs are on the periphery of the NL Wild Card chase and GM Mike Hazen has signaled that he hopes to avoid a sell-off. Their direction — and the availability of players like Suárez, Zac Gallen, Josh Naylor and Merrill Kelly — will largely boil down to how the Diamondbacks perform over the next couple weeks.

It’s not clear in the interim how the Yankees will handle third base. Boone committed only to Peraza playing there tonight and said that otherwise the position will “remain fluid,” with Chisholm sticking over at second base. LeMahieu has plenty of career experience at the hot corner but has been exclusively a second baseman in 2025. Peraza is a strong defender there but has just a .154/.225/.262 batting line, albeit in a relatively small sample of 142 plate appearances and with sporadic, infrequent playing time. Oswaldo Cabrera is still out long-term due to a broken ankle. Jorbit Vivas played a bit of third base earlier this season but is back in Triple-A and in the midst of a rough slump there (.175/.309/.211 across his past 15 games).

The Yankees have also brought in a couple of veterans on non-roster deals over the past week. Jeimer Candelario was a quality offensive performer in four years with the Tigers before becoming a free agent in the 2023-24 offseason. His three-year, $45MM deal with the Reds didn’t pan out at all, and Cincinnati released him on June 29. Candelario signed with the Yankees over the weekend. On the other side of the spectrum, Nicky Lopez is an all-glove utilityman with the versatility to handle shortstop, second base or third base. He opted out of a minor league deal with the D-backs on July 1 and signed with the Yankees a couple days later.

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